Drawing from hundreds of school visits, studies, and expert interviews, the authors have concluded that the rush to use computers in schools has led to one of the most expensive and least helpful revolutions in the history of American education, robbing children of education in music and the arts.

From educators to parents, everyone seems to be clamouring for state-of-the-art school computers in the pervasive belief that computer literacy provides children with a competitive edge in the professional and business world. But where is the evidence that computer use improves basic skills like reading, writing, and comprehension? The Child and the Machine is the first book of our time to challenge, credibly and rigorously, our obsession with a technology that, the authors contend, is wreaking havoc with our children`s lives. Drawing on hundreds of studies from North America, Europe and Japan, as well as first-hand accounts of classrooms across North America, the authors paint a sobering picture of the ineffectiveness of computers, and their negative effects on children`s educational development. Fortunately, The Child and the Machine also offers recommendations for correcting what the authors see as a potentially disastrous situation. Controversial and compelling, The Child and the Machine is bound to spark heated and prolonged debate among all those who care about education. The Child and the Machine won Book of the Year Award from Foreward Magazine (an American publishers magazine for the small presses) in the Education category. (1998)

Papert assesses adoption of technology by schools and resistance to progress.

In a direct sequel to "The Life of the World to Come," Mendoza is banished to a prison lost in time, where rebellious immortals are "dealt with." Her past lovers Alec, Nicholas, and Bell-Fairfax are determined to rescue her, but first they must learn how to live together, because all three happen to be sharing Alecs body.